RFID technology is gaining traction in the tire industry. Although it will be years before individual car tires carry RFID tags, the folks at Goodyear started the ball rolling this month when they affixed RFID tags to the tires of race cars competing at a NASCAR event at Florida's Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The RFID tags were employed to help track the leased tires that are used during races and later returned to the manufacturer. In addition, RFID technology will assist with the implementation of NASCAR's new controlled testing procedures, developed to level the playing field for all of the teams in the series.

"A multitude of passenger tire advances, such as innovative tread designs and new construction techniques, have evolved from our racing roots. Now RFID technology is following that same path," says Steve Roth, Goodyear's director of vehicle systems. "The fast-paced, high-pressure racing environment was the perfect real-life test for our patented, embedded RFID tag, which has been in development in our laboratories for several years."

The RFID chips store tire identification data to help manage the leased inventory and ensure each racing team gets the correct tires. Goodyear says RFID is the quickest method available to log in the thousands of new and used tires teams must return after a race before they can depart from the track.

Goodyear is an advocate for the use of the EPCglobal Unique Identification (UID) format for data contained on the RFID tag. Although Goodyear provides tires to Wal-Mart, the company has escaped the retailer's RFID mandate because it doesn't ship tires by the case or on pallets. However, the company could someday be asked to include RFID tags on tires.

Roth said providing a standard is one of the most important steps in getting new technology adopted, easing implementation for both customers and suppliers.

To that point, representatives from tire manufacturers worldwide and their customers from aerospace, defense and the DOD will meet at the Detroit headquarters of the Automotive Industry Action Group next week to review industry standards for RFID. AIAG has assumed a leadership position in generating one of the world's first item-level RFID tracking and traceability standards, known as B-11. The purpose of the meeting is to further refine B-11 as the single standard for the tire industry—one that will allow tire producers to have one RFID tag per tire that will meet the requirements of all industries and countries.

Once the standard undergoes final tweaking, it will guide further introduction of RFID technology into the auto industry. Just don't expect the next set of tires you purchase to come equipped with RFID tags. Although that may happen down the road, Michelin says it's far too expensive a proposition right now, given that tires are a near commodity, and that outfitting them with RFID would cost consumers about a dollar per tire. There are benefits, however. RFID could help to warn when tires wear thin, or if a dangerous tire pressure condition develops. In addition, RFID would provide clear track and tracing capabilities for tire manufacturers in the event of a tire recall.

It appears that industry might be willing to foot the bill for RFID before consumers do. Companies with large trucking fleets, for example, could benefit from improved preventive maintenance for tires, thereby extending the life of the tires while increasing fuel efficiency.

It may eventually even make sense for tire manufacturers, who are now required to place as many as 12 optical marks on each tire they produce. Optical marks like labels and stickers carry specific tire information. If all of that information could be written to an RFID tag instead, manufacturers would stand to gain from simplified manufacturing processes.